The tide of cloud computing pushes ERP to the CUSP: takeover defeat

Oracle and SAP have recently acquired SaaS cloud computing startups such as RightNow, SuccessFactors and Taleo. But more striking are several acquisitions by Oracle and SAP's rivals Saleforce and Workday. Successive acquisitions by these companies suggest that cloud computing has risen slowly in the corporate marketplace and has also been the death knell for ERP (Enterprise resource planning).

Why do you say that? Because while both Oracle and SAP are acquiring cloud computing companies, they are not actually able to get that part of the user. Because if Oracle and SAP really value cloud computing, their cloud consolidation solutions should have come out long ago.

SAP is the leader in ERP field. Five years ago SAP planned to buy cloud computing companies to revamp its businessbydesign business. But currently there are only 1000 customers in the business, which is even less than 1% of SAP's entire customer population. Before I left Saleforce, http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/14536.html ">salesforce had 100,000 clients." Where is SAP's NetSuite? Do you think they can compete with workday?

Oracle is also a giant in corporate software, but in the emerging market of cloud computing it is a follower. Oracle's first response to cloud computing was to use its own private cloud services to grab the mainframe market. The right thing to do is that Oracle should reinvent its entire business structure to provide the next-generation service platform for the enterprise, which is entirely feasible in the prevailing market environment. Unfortunately, it acquired Taleo and RightNow, the former HR solution provider and the CRM solution provider. But why doesn't oracle have the opportunity to set up a cloud database? or to provide a cloud computing application service? This only means that Oracle is not ready to be a cloud leader. Just as Exadata (Oracle storage services) is not Amazon's competitor at all.

Both SAP and Oracle should introduce innovative cloud computing solutions to adjust their market focus. Instead, they are trying to buy innovative companies to innovate. It's not an offense, it's a defensive strategy.

These transactions and the trader's original intention are contrary. We've seen something like this before: an industry giant is buying other companies to change to a new market. For example, Siebel is trying to buy upshot to transform, the reverse example is saleforce; Yahoo is trying to buy broadcast to expand the new market, the opposite is YouTube; for example, Cisco buys Pure Digital, Try to make video calls a standard for smartphones, and Time Warner buys AOL to tap the Internet.

In each of these cases, the industry giants initially rejected the new technology, but later found that their market share was shrinking, and the companies were paying big bucks to buy some start-ups and put them in the name of "expanding innovation." Overnight, in the eyes of investors and customers, the technology they had denied had become very valuable. As a result, all of the above acquisitions failed. Although they want to be the market leader, those who have never really paid attention to technology, and their behavior is often to help others take the place of their company.

Let's first be clear: a series of cloud-computing acquisitions will not have the slightest benefit to the growth of the ERP business. The acquisition of cloud computing will not make you a cloud company, as you would make it impossible for Jeremy Lin to play in China without turning the CBA into an NBA. Because this strategy is not a prerequisite for company transformation, the real strategy is to allow customers to move from the declining ERP to the information cloud computing services.

The ERP giant has had a glorious time, but now the glory is coming to an end, this is the dilemma of traditional innovators. The more innovators the SAP and Oracle see in the corporate marketplace, the harder they will be to adapt to new changes. The big wave of cloud computing is already ahead of them, and it's too late for these companies.

What SAP and Oracle can do now is either to fully adapt to the cloud computing environment or to stick to the last piece of the host market. They will not completely collapse, but will become irrelevant to cloud computing enterprises.

Editor's note: This writer Tien Tzuo,saleforce's former chief strategist and marketing director.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)